17. Chapter 17 Caught!
GAbrIEL
My little jewel's nudity has a predictable effect on my libido, especially after so many weeks without her. However, it's what I see on her face that catches and holds my interest.
Without her makeup covering them, dark purple bruises of exhaustion stand out starkly against her pale skin under Juliana's beautiful eyes.
Those aquamarine depths still glow with happiness when she spies me in the mirror. "Gabriel. You came."
"I told you I would."
"It's almost midnight."
"So?" If she had allowed a maid to help her get ready for bed, I would have waited.
No matter how long it would take.
"I just thou—" Her lovely mouth cracks in a huge yawn she covers with her hand.
I tug the brush she just picked up from her hand and gently press her down onto the vanity chair. "Let me do it."
"Please." She lets her arms drop and her hands rest on the creamy skin of her naked thighs.
Refusing to allow my intention to be sidetracked by the shadow of curls at their apex, I draw the brush through her long brown hair. By the time her hair is a smooth curtain of silk around her face, Juliana's eyes are half mast and she's listing in the chair.
I lift her into my arms and carry her through to the bedroom, where I turn off the light and tuck us both into bed.
Her head resting on my chest, she inhales deeply. "You always smell so good."
"And you feel like perfection in my arms."
"That's nice," she slurs sleepily. "Only I'm too tired to…you know."
Cupping her nape, I rub my thumb along her jaw. "I know. Go to sleep, juwayhira."
"Okay." She pats my chest. "Nice sheikh." And then her body goes boneless in somnolence.
It would have been better to arrange the welcome reception for after she had time to recover from her journey here. However, today was the only day between now and our wedding week when both my brothers and my father would be in Nurayn at the same time.
If any one of them were missing from the welcome reception, there would be conjecture about their support of the marriage since its purpose was to make the official announcement of our upcoming marriage and welcome of Juliana into the royal family.
When my mother asked if I thought having the reception the night of Juliana's arrival was going to be too much for my bride-to-be, I said no. Juliana had not been tired when she arrived before. Far from it.
Of course, that trip did not come after weeks spent preparing for an entirely new life in a new country with a man determined to get her there as quickly as possible.
Nothing has felt right since she left Zahriya, not until this very moment when I can hold her naked body against mine again and some unnamed uncertainty inside me settles.
It was selfishness that prompted me to insist that Juliana's schedule remain entirely free tomorrow so she could rest. I planned to spend the day with her away from prying eyes.
Her exhaustion tonight changes how I intend to spend that time with her but does not diminish my determination to do so. It also makes me rethink how Juliana should spend the next week.
I wake early to put my plans into motion, contacting the event coordinator, my mother's social secretary and my own staff to clear Juliana's schedule. The wedding week will be difficult enough for my sweetly introverted fiancée.
She does not need to spend this week attending dinners, luncheons and other social events intended to introduce her to extended family and other important people of Zahriya.
She is my sheikha before she is Zahriya's princess. As such, I will protect her from being overwhelmed.
After I show her how to access the secret tunnels that allow my family to navigate the palace without being seen by staff, security or visitors, I take Juliana horseback riding on a mount from the royal stables kept on the northern side of the gulf crescent.
We ride into the foothills and because I know my little jewel well, I have a basic rockhounding kit in saddlebags. We don't have hiking boots, but that doesn't stop her from wanting to explore a likely spot.
As I was certain it wouldn't.
We do not return to the palace until late in the afternoon, and we spend the remainder of the day resting as we did her first day in Ayn al-Hayat. I keep her up most of the night trying to sate the passion that went unfulfilled for weeks with her in Santa Fe and we fall asleep near dawn.
Juliana is still sleeping when my staff informs me her brother is here and wishes to speak to me. I give instructions for him to be taken to the private reception room with access to the family's tunnels I showed to Juliana the day before.
Leaving a note for if she wakes before I return, I tell her where I have gone and who I am going to meet.
My little jewel will enjoy the romance of using the access tunnels to join us.
Believing we would spend our morning together in privacy, I have already instructed Reem and Juliana's bodyguards to ensure she is not disturbed until she wakes of her own accord.
My soon-to-be brother-in-law is pacing in the small private reception room the palace staff showed him to upon his arrival.
"Hello, Robert. Juliana is not expecting you for another two weeks. She will be happy to see you." I would have been happier if he had waited a couple of days to make his surprise arrival.
"How could you fucking do it?" Bobby blasts me without preamble. "How could you sign that disgusting contract with my father?"
"How did you find out about the contract?" I counter.
"When Mark told me that your mom has dermatological issues, he and Tessa thought it was some kind of sign that you and Juliana are meant for each other. That you would understand her better than another man might."
"I do understand her." At first, my insight was due to the deep dive investigative report I had done on her.
But now it comes from our time together, time in which I learned to appreciate the heart and the strength of the woman no series of facts or psychological assessment could adequately convey.
"If you did, you would know how devastated she is going to be when she realizes you don't love her. That it was all part of some plot devised between you and my bastard of a father."
"Juliana does not believe I love her. She knows that I desire to spend the rest of our lives together. That will not change tomorrow, next year or ten years from now." I need her and always will.
"And you say you understand her. Of course, she believes you love her," Bobby says scathingly. "She's a romantic and the one thing she has always wanted more than anything else was to be loved for who she is."
"Perhaps you do not know your sister as well as you think you do. My jewel wishes to be desired, to be cherished, to be understood and accepted fully as herself. I can and will give her all of those things."
Bobby's eyes narrow speculatively on me. "How can you cherish her when you don't love her? When you agreed to marry her to gain access to my company's medical technology?"
"Have I done a single thing to indicate that I do not cherish the precious woman who has agreed to become my wife?" I know I have not.
"Agreeing to the damn contract caveat! Being willing to deceive her shows how much you don't cherish Juliana, how little you even respect her."
"I have never lied to your sister."
"Then you told her about the contract?" the other man demands belligerently.
"You know I have not. Learning of it would hurt her."
"Better for her to hurt now than even more later, after she's spent months or years believing she can trust you."
His words send a chill of premonition down my spine. "You will not tell your sister of my bargain with your father."
"Like hell I won't. She deserves to know. If she still wants to marry you after, that's on her, but I won't stand by while you and my father manipulate and deceive her."
"I respect your desire to protect your sister." I even admire it. "But I will not allow you to threaten my future with Juliana."
"I don't see how you can stop me."
"Then your imagination is sadly lacking.
Five years ago, you employed creative means to get yourself out of debt to a dangerous man by leveraging your relationship with a man whose family is even more dangerous.
Since then, you have augmented your income at least once a year by the same creative means.
" I do not spell it out because even a private reception room is not fully secure in a palace.
My office, those of my father and brothers, are swept daily for listening devices and our electronic devices kept free of spyware.
But this room and the other public spaces in the palace are accessible to too many people, including the citizenry on the days of the Majlis, our public forums where any citizen can present a petition or grievance to my older brother or father.
Bobby's expression tells me he knows exactly what I'm talking about. "Do what you have to. Tell who you think will listen, but I'm telling Juliana about my dad's plan and your part in it."
"You love your sister very much." More than his own reputation and even potentially freedom from incarceration.
"Yes."
"Good."
"At least someone does," Juliana's voice, sounding like I have never heard it, comes from behind me.
As I turn to face her, I have reason to curse the palace staff for leading Bobby to this one instead of any of a dozen other private reception rooms without access to the tunnels.
And curse the heavens for Juliana's untimely waking and rush to greet her brother.